Differing local partisan political philosophies

The experience was short lived and never got a chance to be a trend or institutional change or expectation.

Muncie's budget for 2013, approved Monday by city council, included a budget for Prairie Creek Reservoir of $655,000 against expected revenues but $562,120.

So we're back where we were before 2010, when the last administration sought successfully to make the city's largest park - and one located six miles outside city limits - financially self-sustaining. Never before had this been done.

Unlike typical city parks, Prairie Creek, with a 1,275-acre lake, has attractions way exceeding the usual open space, grass, basketball courts and swing sets.

Docking fees, camp site fees, boating fees, beach swimming fees and facility rental fees all give Prairie Creek the wherewithal to collect from users the funds necessary to run the place.

Property taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing folks who use the park, especially taxpayers who can't even get to the reservoir's Perry Township location.

Perhaps this is one of those few issues on which local politics has a partisan divide.

I've said in the past that on most major national issues - say, gun control, abortion, foreign aid, free speech, monetary policy - local political parties don't particularly part ways.

Also true on most, but not all, local issues. Size and role of government. Collective bargaining for public employees.

At both levels, Democrats support both bigger government and union rights for government workers. (Which is interesting in the sense that they feel we need more government to take care of people, but government won't take care of government workers, so we need unions to do that.)

Perhaps Prairie Creek falls into this cauldron: Where the prior Republican administration felt reservoir users should foot the bill, Democrats think taxpayers should support this campground and users should pay less.

Last year, the city's Parks and Recreation Board approved hikes to go into effect this year for boating and dock fees, and the increases were justified from a marketing standpoint, i.e., people were on waiting lists for pier space.

What also should have been hiked were camping fees, with are less costly than state parks, the main competition.

At the first meeting of the parks board this year, after the administration changed and so did the park board, with resignations allowing a new Muncie Mayor, Democrat Dennis Tyler, to cement a majority, those increases were rescinded.

The new parks board president said, "This board will operate differently than in the past," after Tyler welcomed the new board and announced his will be "a people's administration."

The philosophical divide comes into play perhaps with a couple of other issues as well.

Animal control, for example, which no longer recognizes "control," but has been renamed "Animal Care and Services." We don't control our animals, they control us.

The prior Republican administration - which made appropriate, yet not overly active, efforts not to euthanize animals - made a controversial decision to stop allowing citizens to surrender pets they no longer wanted.

The Republican philosophy seemed, "You decide to become a pet owner, take responsibility for your animal. Don't ask government to bail you out if you no longer like owning a pet."

That policy's been reversed this year. It takes a village to raise a cat.

And if you allow Fluffy to run loose and have a litter of puppies you can't give away, don't worry, the shelter will take them in. You can avoid responsibility.

One explanation, as the shelter director has said, is that some people will dump the animals anyway and they'll become a shelter problem.

True enough in many cases, but are we allowing ourselves to be extorted by prospective lawbreakers?

Another issue with local partisan divide between GOP and Democrat philosophies: weed control.

Two years ago, the Republican administration got city council (one wonders how that happened given the rancor between the two branches of government) to approve a $75 fine against residents who allow their yards to grow uncut beyond 12 inches of height.

Inspectors measured the vegetation and cited owners, who then had 10 days to cut their grass or the city might do so and charge them yet another $100.

The Republican philosophy seemed to be that homeowners shouldn't need reminded their lawns were jungles and residents needed to be responsible.

Democrats think they should first remind people first of their responsibilities - that $75 fine has been rescinded - especially during an economic contraction afflicting so many people, though I suspect their sympathies would have been the same in better times.

Different philosophies of local governance.

Larry Riley teaches English at Ball State University. Email him at lriley@bsu.edu.

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Differing local partisan political philosophies

The experience was short lived and never got a chance to be a trend or institutional change or expectation.